A debate has ensued whether it should be mentioned that the story previously appeared elsewhere.
Hardluck's submission guidelines state, "Only previously unpublished works will be considered," but editor Dave Zeltserman defends HLS's publication of "Familiars," reasoning that there was no editorial process involved in the online anthology. Participating authors drafted, revised, and posted stories on their own.
Many reputable print and online markets warn that the act of posting on a blog or homepage is publication, and they respect it as such. Other markets specify exactly what they take "published" to mean.
If Hardluck does not consider blog-posting to be publication, this should be spelled out in its submission guidelines. If Hardluck makes an exception for work posted without an editorial process, this should be spelled out in its submission guidelines. Neither stipulation appears in the guidelines as of this post.
UPDATE (08/04/05): Dave Zeltserman has added to his Hardluck Thoughts commentary as follows:
About Bob Tinsley's terrific story "Familiars". I fudged my guidelines to accept it. At the time I wasn't thinking I was fudging, but I was. The story was originally posted on Bob's personal blog as part of the "Going Twice" project run by Mr. Dave White and Mr. Bryon Quertermous, which I also participated in. This project involved having a number of authors who blog taking a story seed (in this case a story somehow involving an item involved one way or another with a police auction) and posting their version simultaneously. It's a fun project to be involved with, with some very interesting outcomes, but since there is no editorial process other than who Mr. White and Mr. Quertermous invite, I viewed Bob's story more as a self-published story and still eligible for Hardluck publication - my main reason being I hated the idea of this story not being eligible for Edgar or best of anthology considerations, and anyone who reads this story I think will concur that it deserves to be eligible for both. Anyway, I fudged, and have since learned the errors of my ways, and have updated my submissions guidelines to exclude any story in the future for Hardluck consideration that has previously been posted on a blog, on a web-site, critique site, or anywhere on the Internet.
The amendment to Hardluck's guidelines reads:
New as of 8/03/05: Hardluck will consider a story previously published if it has appeared in print, on the web, in audio or in any other form. That means if a story has been previously posted on a critique site, on a blog or on any web-site, it will be ineligible for publication by Hardluck.
5 comments:
Excellent post, Gerald.
Gerald,
Good post. Initially it seemed pretty clear to me that posting a story on your blog doesn't constitute publishing for several reasons, including that there's no editorial selection or editorial process. Also, could a story that an author posts on their bog be eligible for an Edgar or Shamus or any other award? I don't think so, although curiously self-published books can be considered by the Edgars. I'd also love to get Ed Gorman's take - would he ever consider such a story for his best of anthology?
But I guess posting a story on a blog does constitute self-publishing. But what if an author is doing it simply to get feedback before submitting a story to publications? Or what if you post a story on a critique web-site that might have a wide audience. One of the early stories Hardluck published had initially been placed on a critique site. The author never considered the story published, but it ended up that we were ineligible for the Derringer because someone had nominated the story from the critique site for a Shamus. Another thing complicating this is the intent of the Blogathon. I viewed it as more of a writer's group than anything else - a way for writers to experiment and get feedback.
I guess what it comes down to is this issue is messy, and I'll probably quickly update Hardluck's guidelines to restrict stories that have been previously posted anywhere (web-site, blog, critique site, etc). For the record, I invited Bob to submit his story to Neddal because I think Familiars is an outstanding story and wanted to give it both an Edgar shot and Best of Anthology considerations.
So Gerald, now that I've spilled my guts - what's TD's policy on this??
So Gerald, now that I've spilled my guts - what's TD's policy on this??
Our pay rate is $10 per piece of original, unpublished fiction. We occasionally reprint classic P.I. fiction (e.g. an excerpt from The Maltese Falcon). For the Spring 2005 issue, we published an MP3 encore of Dave White's "Get Miles Away."
Like Hardluck, TD does not actively seek reprints. We also do not consider simultaneous submissions, and in the case we find a story was previously published, we remove it from consideration at TD.
But Gerald, would TD consider a story that someone posted on his/her web-site as published? What if they posted it on a critique site?
But Gerald, would TD consider a story that someone posted on his/her web-site as published? What if they posted it on a critique site?
We consider work appearing anywhere in print or online to have been published. We do not offer payment for material we reprint.
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